J. G. Frazer et al.2025-03-282025-03-281910http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11837/2770The man who more than any other deserves to rank as the discoverer of totemism and exogamy was the Scotchman John Ferguson McLennan. It was not that he was the first to notice the mere existence of the institution in various races nor even that he added very much to our knowledge of them. But with the intuition of genius, he perceived or divined the far-reaching influence which in different ways he two institutions have exercised on the history of society. McLennan's discovery of exogamy attracted attention and excited discussions; his discovery of totemism made comparatively little stir, and outside of a small circle of experts it passed almost unnoticed in the general world of educated opinion.en